I would have thought The Prestige would be more memorable than it turned out being. This isn’t due to it being hyped up or anything either. No, I went into this movie knowing nothing about it, except for its stars and director. The reason I thought it should be more memorable, was because of the fact that I really enjoyed watching it. Then, about 9 hours later, I struggled to even remember its name. I remember watching a movie, and I remembered that I enjoyed it, but it took a while until I got the title to that movie, and subsequently remember what it was about and why I enjoyed it.
See, I did enjoy it. A lot, in fact. It was suspenseful, the story was entertaining, and there were good actors playing interesting characters. There were many twists throughout, and, like a good majic trick, you’re never quite kept in the loop.
The film is about magic, or more so one magic trick in particular. This trick is called “The Transported Man”. The trick allows someone to teleport himself across the stage, something that would be impressive even if the film hadn’t taken place in the past. The plot mostly revolves around two men. One of which came up with the trick (Christian Bale), while the other one wishes to steal it (Hugh Jackman). That’s the simplist explanation one could give, because the story has enough twists in it to make it complicated to explain. It has many subplots that are explored, from Bale’s character’s relationships to finding out what Nikola Tesla (David Bowie) really did with his free time.
Oh yeah, did I not mention that Tesla is played by Bowie? Well, he is, and is almost unrecognizeable in the role. I’m not going to say that he did a great job, but he didn’t do poorly. Neither did any of the lead actors, with all of them playing their parts well. Surprisingly, Scarlett Johansson manages to pull off a British accent well, and Jackman does the same North American accent he’s done before in films like Van Helsing or the X-men films. Bale gets to use his native British accent for his role, something that is a nice change from the American accent he is often told to use.
I’m still not quite sure why The Prestige wasn’t that memorable a film for me. Maybe it’s because it threw so many plot points at me throughout its running time, or maybe life is just too busy in order to fully grasp and remember them all. Christopher Nolan’s films usually do have a lot of plot in them, often times not making sense until the end, and that is definitely the case here. I think that it would be more memorable on repeat viewings, as you will actually know what is going the entire time.
That’s the only real problem that The Prestige has. It’s story can get a little hard to follow at times. Now, can a film be criticised for something that it is trying to do? I believe it can, and am therefore going to do that. The Prestige tries hard to keep things from getting to complicated, but there are times, few and far between as they are, where it lost me a little bit. These times are few, and the film does manage to involve you again soon after, but at these points, the film is frustrating to watch. You realize that you are watching something good, but you aren’t being told what’s going on.
And yet, despite the story sometimes being too hard to follow, the film is still incredibly entertaining. There are too many things going in the film’s direction to have the story ruin the experience. Good acting, a decent direction and an interesting story manage to make The Prestige something that I plan on watching again fairly soon. Maybe it’ll be more memorable the second time along, I can only hope so anyway.
I think that this is one of the best movies ever with brilliant acting, amazing camerawork, great writing, much better than the book which it is loosely (quite an understatement) based on, and had one of the best twists ever in it.
I believe that The Prestige was very well portrayed. It keeps you on your tows the entire film. I love a movie that I have to watch vigorously from beginning to end. I find it very odd that your review states the movie to be confusing and not memorable for you, but you gave it 5 stars anyway? I would find a movie that did not suite my tastes enough to remember it would at the very most get a 4. But that is just me I guess. Anyway I loved the film, it is on my top movies of all time.
I loved this film. I do agree that it jumped around quite a bit. The most difficult to follow were the looks into the past and back into present time. These flashbacks were not as recognizable as one would see in most movies. The plot was amazing and kept me guessing. I love a movie that makes me think. There are too many out there that are predictable that I often feel numb watching it. I was extremely pleased with this movie, but as you stated, I also had a hard time coming up with the name of the movie. I knew I loved it, but trying to remember was so difficult. I think it may be due to the jumping around and trying to constantly figure out exactly what is happening.
I watched the film for the second time recently and still found it very engaging. I’m not sure I agree with your criticism of the story being too complicated though. While the story can jump around as previously mentioned, it never becomes disjointed and remains engaging throughout. It will confuse most and keep people guessing, but there is clear resolution in the end and all those curiosities are tied up. You view it as a criticism but surely it is of benefit to the film to be puzzling, as it makes the pay-off all the more sweeter.
Agreed, Donnie.